I stood and stared – mouth agape and eyes wide open.  I was in genuine shock at what I was seeing.

The job had come down as “Red 2, 35 year old female – Difficulty in Breathing – Chest Pain”.  On arrival our patient didn’t look happy . . . and neither did their husband, who was fidgeting backwards and forward rattling off in broken English what had happened with sincere heartfelt concern for his wife. Continue reading →

I recently attended a Practice Educator course (PEd) which, once passed allows you to be allocated a student to mentor for a set period of time.  The course, run over less than a day, aims to get you prepared to deal with such things as, the student’s “signing off document”, or how to be a good role model to the future of our front line health care professionals – or more importantly, what do to if the student is a complete idiot.  Continue reading →

I’ve got into a little habit of doing silly charity events of late.  So when a work colleague, Martin Lewis, approached me with an idea he had for a charity ambulance pull, from Hackney to White City, I thought to myself, how could I refuse.  Especially as it was for Children in Need.

“Is it going to be an older truck or a newer one?”  I asked hoping for the older ones.
“It’s a brand new ’12 plate”
“Damn it.  They’re heavier”
“Only by half a ton or so.  I’m sure we’ll manage” Continue reading →

The doors were burst open into the resuss department by our trolley bed.  Our patient, recently brought back from cardiac arrest was not breathing and still in a critical state*.  Wires, tubes, dots, cylinders, devices, gadgets and of course, the machine that goes “ping” were strewn all about our patient desperately keeping track of any change in their condition.

In front of us were two bays with beds in . . . Continue reading →

The very first job we went to yesterday was a cardiac arrest.

It came down as Red 2, “fainting” with a post scriptum stating “patient making gurgling sounds”.  That was enough to set off some warning bells at least.

So, we quickly arrived, and along with an FRU, another ambulance crew and a , we spent the next hour dragging an old gentleman back from the proverbial “light”.  Continue reading →

The classic attack from an ambulance crew to a woman in normal labour (sometimes out of ear shot, sometimes not) is to gripe that they’ve had nine months to plan for this event – so why are they calling for an ambulance now!  The most common retort from the patient is to say that the midwives told them to call for one when their contractions get to a certain duration.

Now, this could be true in some instances but I don’t believe it in most.  For when we enter the maternity department of a hospital with our patient in tow – sometimes walking, sometimes in a chair or sometimes on a trolley bed.  Sometimes even, in the throws of spitting out a new born baby from between their legs . . . Continue reading →